不论是小米Mix，三星的Note8还是Google Pixel 2/XL都不是好的全面屏设计，iPhone X的额头设计要先进很多。我这么说的原因是因为这三款手机并没有把手机设计推向极限。这么说并不是因为这些手机不好看，而恰恰是因为它们把“好看”当成了设计的第一要务。通过把手机屏幕和手机的额头下巴设计成一体式来使得手机正面看起来只有屏幕，并将扬声器和摄像头放在额头和下巴里进行隐藏的设计并不是很新颖，同时这个设计很无聊。这个设计最大的问题是并没有最大化的利用可利用空间。可以是屏幕的地方并不是屏幕，而且只是用来隐藏扬声器和摄像头。这个设计在两个方面可以说得上是失败的设计。首先当用户点亮屏幕的时候没有一个人会认为正面全是屏幕，用户既不会也不能骗过自己——一个毫无用处的额头和下巴。这个设计在尝试让产品比今天我们所拥有的技术看起来更漂亮，但是并没有成功。今天的技术并不能让摄像头、话筒、扬声器和其他传感器真正“隐形”，在这种情况下iPhone X的额头设计不仅仅是对自己诚实，而且最大限度的利用了正面空间。不论是小米还是三星、Google都有机会设计一部面积更小或者屏幕更大的手机，但是它们都主动选择了不去利用可利用空间。第二，可以说在选择了有额头和下巴的设计时手机设计的目标就是设计一个好看的物品而不是全面屏手机。几乎所有的设计师在有足够自由度的时候都可以设计出好看的物品。但是正如Steve Jobs 所说，设计是整个产品而不仅仅是外观和感觉（Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.)。全面屏手机的第一目标并不是好看，而是正面全是屏幕。现代设计的理念是”外观追随功能（form follows function）“。在这一点上Google Pixel 2/XL，三星Note8和小米Mix的设计都没有遵循这样的设计原则，在开始设计之初就破坏了它们设计的初衷——让手机正面尽可能多的全是屏幕。压缩屏幕占比来让手机更好看不是全面屏，更不是手机发展的目标。当然iPhone X的设计我也不会叫它是真正的全面屏手机，它是今天技术所能制造的最接近全面屏的手机。iPhone未来的设计很清楚，就是在技术进步的条件下把尽可能多的传感器、摄像头和扬声器放到屏幕之下。被今天技术所限制而不能做到真正的全面屏，但是至少让我们看到了一个尽可能扩大屏幕面积、压缩非屏幕空间的设计，这样的设计比类似传统设计的屏幕同宽额头和下巴更好、更进步、更勇敢。

The notch on iPhone X is a better industrial design than Samsung Note 8 or Google Pixel 2 or Mi Mix. The top notch is giving the screen it can give, and being true to itself.Try to hide speakers and camera with chin and forehead, and make it looks like a "all screen" phone isn't new, and that design looks boring and bad. The problem of the Google pixel 2 or Samsung note (so does Mi mix) design is they aren't utilizing the space they should have utilized. The chin and forehead's existence is purely try to hide speakers and front facing camera to make the phone looks like the front is entirely screen. That design failed in two ways.First when the screen light up, no user will or can fool themselves. It's empty space rather than screen. They are try to make the product looks better than the technology we have today. The top notch design is being honest to today's technology. With no ability to hide speakers, camera, and other censers, it gives you a notch on the top of the screen, rather than have chin and forehead. Second Google or Samsung could have gave more screen space or made the phone smaller, but they choose not to. Compare to the top notch design, they only tried to make the phone looks all screen rather than make the phone actually all screen.The design choice of Pixel 2 and Note 8 aren't to be a "all screen" phone, it's design to be a good looking object. Any designer could design a beautiful object, but only being a nice looking object is not a great design. The design aren't fulfill their goal which is a "all screen" phone. They choose to make it looks better rather than make it more usable. Steve Jobs once said "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." Modern design has one principle, form follows function. The Google Pixel 2, Samsung Note 8, or Mi Mix are all failed to the principle, their design is breaking their first purpose, being all screen on the front, of the device.I wouldn't call the top notch design a true edge to edge or "all screen" phone either, it's a edge to edge screen of today's technology, rather than real edge to edge screen. But still it's a better design.

Peter Thiel and Gawker

Peter Thiel, co-founder of paypal and one of the early and significante investor of Facebook, is revealed that is having a war against a media, Gawker. If you havn’t heard of this story, I encourge you to read the background story. This is a very intense story especially among people related to media and tech. Gawker revealed that Peter Thiel is a gay, which is true, but Peter Thiel didn’t come out at the point, and not willing to reveal it. In this very special case, Peter Thiel is hurted deeply, and the amount of demage is only determained by Mr. Thiel himself, it’s more about his own feeling, not that much how the story influenced the rest of the world. Among media, people tende to critisize Peter Thiel about the revenge, cause they might be the next one in the court. I feel different from common media. Mr. Thiel have the right to fight this war, and the reason is adujested. Unveal stuff that’s totally privacy doesn’t benifit any people except the media itself, medias should aim to look after government or other institute, rathe than individuals. Mr. Thiel isn’t a celebrity or public figure, he should have his privacy kept safely. Peter Thiel describe Gawker as bully and terrorists, I agree, their action is aimed at individuals, looking after those individuals’ privacy, publish them. It could hurt people deeply, not everyone are celebrities, not a lot people really want to be celebrities. Their privacy are privacy, not news, and shouldn’t be published. Gawker’s action could totally demage a people, or even kill someone. Luckily that Mr. Thiel is strong enough to revenge. I think a lot of medias has been on a bad tract too far, to attract people’s eye without any think, the privacy stuff do attract people’s eye, but that shouldn’t be what media do all day long. Gawker’s lawsuit may push them to a dead end, bankrupcy, but this may bring more thought into this industry. Reporters and editors would seriously think about their publication and publish more in public interest side reather than publish more in the interesting side.In addition: I do have concern about this war, what if some billionaires that do revenge media over political scandal in the future. I think there could be ways to prevent that happens, but I’m not confident enough to say that will be prevented. I’m only on the Peter Thiel side for this case cause Gawker is out of its way and could continue hurt other people, they deserve punishment.

What is it

I tried Rough Draft for a small writing, and it's a interesting text editor. I can see how it's attractive to some people. It's try to make the first draft writing more solid by mimic paper writing, all deletes are strike throughs rather than normal delete. That requires more focus on first draft, and possiblly the first draft would be more readalbe than normal.

Not for me

I do feel it's a great try and would be fitful for a lot of people, unfortunately it's not for me. It doesn't fit in my writing process. If I'm writing a long essay, I usually write directly in Ulysses, for a short piece, I write in iA Writer. After I write anything, I rethink about the topic and try to argue with myself, if I find something that not solid in the writing, it would end up rewrite some of the writing. Fishing the rethink, I would also check my language, since I'm not a native speaker, and usually I use iA Writer to do this step with its focus mode function. That's very helpful for me. I would say it's still worth a try for most people, and probablly end up useful for a lot of people. You should try it for free in the Mac App Store

Seravel Days Without Apple Watch

For seravel days I cannot wear my Apple Watch, and it certainly felt uncomfortable. I had a repair service with my watch, and it took quite a while. Since I don’t have another watch to wear, I actually can feel the value of my Apple Watch. First of all, I use it to keep time. Using phone to keep time is certainly ok, but have a watch on my wrist is much better. The most frequent thing I do other than checking time is checking complications, they are more than helpful, especially with watchOS 2 that I can install third party complications. Knowing the scheduled event that coming up, the weather outside, and having other helpful utilities are more than enough when I initiate the glence at the watch. Other than timekeeping and checking complications, notifaction is one of my favorite feature. When the watch taps my arm to notify me, I could quickly glence at the watch and know what’s happening, and decide if I need to take out my phone to react.Apple watch is certainly a useful device, which I loved but less than I expacted or wanted. There are some parts of this product annoys me. From technical point of view the watch is slow and that’s harmful. With watchOS 1 people cannot load native Apps, the slowness is understandable and I choose not to complain about it. With watchOS 2, native Apps are still take a long time to load, that shows how the hardware isn’t capable. Glance should be useful with fast enough hardware, as I want to check some thing quick, but it take forever to update a glance. Sometime the complications especially third party complications aren’t updating or take a long time to update when I look at them. This is one of the major draw back for me. Other than slowness, watch face design is quite giving enough attention by Apple. Watch face is important, not only because people look at it, but also because it carries complications, one of the most useful part of the watch. If I only want timekeeping function, I would prefer a traditional wrist watch, which would just work fine and last way longer than an Apple Watch. This meanings because of the Apps are not fitful in day to day use(because Apps aren’t runing fast enough or apps are found not to be useful as phone apps), I choose Apple watch rather than a traditional watch because the complications and notifactions. I’m annoyed by the truth that I can only put three complications on my favorite watch face, and a similer watch face could have four. The watch face have “most complication slots” is modular face, if I put date on it, there are only four slot left, which is same as the “Color” and “Simple.” I would argue rather than make more bands, Apple should make more watch faces or make watch faces more customizable to enhance the functionality.The one on the right is current watch face, the one on the left is my preferred watch motifaction to current one, with seperated bottom bar and two complications.最近刚好因为一些原因不能佩戴Apple Watch，感觉能更清晰的感觉到Apple Watch给日常生活带来的影响。首先不带Apple Watch最大的感受就是更频繁的拿出手机，如果有一个比较紧张的日程表，那么拿出手机的频率非常高，目的仅仅是检查时间，带Apple Watch或者任何手表确实使得看时间这件事更加快速。除去看时间，查看complication也是一个主要应用。抬起手腕就可以看到天气、日程等等确实很方便。除此之外通知功能是另一个比较常用的。我发现我最近经常出现手机震动就抬起手腕的行为，然后也出现漏掉一些通知的情况，我觉得这确确实实体现了Apple Watch对我的影响，而且使用Apple Watch后迅速形成了一些习惯，我认为Apple Watch确实是一款有用的产品。上面说了满意的点，我对Apple watch不满的地方主要在于硬件性能和表盘。硬件性能上的慢极大的影响了Apple watch的使用，glance本来应该是个有用的功能，但是事实上每次打开glance都只能看到它在更新状态所以这个功能就越来越少用到了。在watchOS 1的时代读取App很慢，但是因为并不是原生App我觉得问题不大，到了watchOS 2时代，即便是原生App仍然很慢，充分显示了Apple Watch的硬件问题。表盘设计也有一定的问题，“实用”这个表盘和“颜色”简约“这两个表盘相似但是只能有三个complication位置，而其他两个表盘则有四个位置，”模块“表盘看起来是最富功能性的表盘，实际上如果把日期放在表盘上则只剩下四个空余的位置，和其他可以放置complication的表盘差距不大甚至可以说没有。我觉得Apple与其专注设计新款表带，不如多设计几款表盘或者让现有表盘有更高的定制程度，比如在”模块“表盘上允许用户自己把大的位置分成三个小的位置，在”实用“表盘上允许把下方长条形的位置分成左右下角两个小的位置。这样的改变应该不是很难，提高了定制程度，但是保证了complication的兼容性，还直接提高了主要功能的功能性。